9.11 Chapter summary and references

Chapter summary

Teaching involves numerous instructional strategies, which are decisions and actions designed to facilitate learning. The choice of strategies depends partly on the forms of thinking intended for students—whether the goal is for students to think critically, for example, or to think creatively, or to solve problems. A fundamental decision in choosing instructional strategies is how much to emphasize teacher-directed instruction, as compared to student-centered models of learning. Teacher-directed strategies of instruction include lectures and readings (expository teaching), mastery learning, scripted or direct instruction, and complex teacher-directed approaches such as Madeline Hunter’s effective teaching model. Student-centered models of learning include independent study, student self-reflection, inquiry learning, and various forms of cooperative or collaborative learning. Although for some students, curriculum content and learning goals may lend themselves toward one particular type of instruction, teaching is often a matter of combining different strategies appropriately and creatively.

On the internet

< www.glossary.plasmalink.com/glossary.html > This web page lists over 900 instructional strategies—about ten times as many as in this chapter! The strategies are arranged alphabetically and range from simple to complex. For many strategies there are links to other web pages with more complete explanations and advice for use. This is a good page if you have heard of a strategy but want to find out its definition quickly.

< www.olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/alpha.html > Like the web page above, this one also describes instructional strategies. It includes fewer (about 200), but they are discussed in more detail and organized according to major categories or types of strategies—a good feature if you have a general idea of what sort of strategy you are looking for, but are not sure of precisely which one.

Key terms

• Advance organizers
• Algorithms
• Analogical thinking
• Collaborative learning
• Concept map
• Convergent thinking
• Cooperative learning
• Creative thinking
• Critical thinking
• Divergent thinking
• Effective teaching model
• Freeloading
• Functional fixedness
• Heuristics
• Ill-structured problem
• Independent study
• Instructional strategies
• Lectures
• Mastery learning
• Overspecialization
• Problem analysis
• Problem representation
• Problem-solving
• Response set
• Self-reflection
• Student-centered models of learning
• Teacher-directed instruction
• Transfer
• Well-structured problem
• Working backward

References

Aronson, E. (2001). In the jigsaw classroom. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Benson, B.&Barnett, S. (2005). Student-led conferencing using showcase portfolios. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Black, P., Harrison, C., Lee C., Marshall, B.,&William, D. (2004). Working inside the black box: Assessment for learning in the classroom. Phi Delta Kappan, 86 (1), 8-21.

Bothmer, S. (2003). Creating the peaceable classroom. Tuscon, AZ: Zephyr Press.